I just thought I'd share something I observed today.
My daughter, who is 2 years and 3 months old, loves hiking with me. So far we've only done day hikes, plus she has been camping a few times.
She has her own little daypack that her mum bought her for childcare. It is tiny, must be about 3L. But as she's small it fits her like it would me a 20L pack! Its just a cotton fabric thing with simple straps and a big sparkly love heart on the back.
Sometimes she really wants to wear it, which is super cute. This morning when we got out of the car she wanted to. It was cold, so I had her in her cheap synthetic fill jacket we bought her in Japan, which has a cheap slippery nylon shell (something like 70D I'd say). Anyway, the pack straps were sliding on her jacket quite a bit, sliding off her shoulders, which annoyed her. I slide them back up for her, but they kept coming back down.
She instinctively tried to correct it and did a fairly good job. Then she noticed the ends of the straps-the lengths of webbing past the buckles. She started holding them across her and holding the two ends together, much like a waist belt, but really a cross between a waist and sternum strap due to the height of the slider buckles. I could tell that as she was looking down at the two ends, she wished there was a way to join them together, as it was making the pack more comfy and stable on her back, and stopping her straps from sliding off her shoulders! Was fascinating to watch the thought process of an intelligent* toddler in this situation, the natural intuition coming out as to how a pack should work and fit properly, and figuring out exactly what sternum straps are there for (I swear I've had to teach a hundred adults this).
I think its time I got her, her first proper hiking pack. Might have to do a custom job here as she's so small (she's tall for her age, but compared to a small pack, she's tiny).
*Not a biased father.
